2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Tick, Tock, Tick… Time’s Up For Hershey. Simon Fraser talks Prog 2349
13th September 2023
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, it’s the return of Simon Fraser for a very special moment in 2000 AD history – the finale to Hershey: The Cold In The Bones and the final farewell to ex-Chief Judge Barbara Hershey.
It is, to say the least, a bit of a moment.
She’s been a Cadet, a Judge, served as Chief Judge twice, seen her time as Chief Judge tarnished irreparably by the actions of Judge Smiley, been dealt a death sentence through an incurable virus, and then faked her own death to enable her to confront her guilt at what she allowed to happen on her watch.
That was Barbara Hershey’s life. And now, with the finale to Hershey: The Cold In The Bones in 2000 AD Prog 2349, out on 13 September, it’s all coming to an end. THE end.
Tick, tock, Hershey, tick, tock. Tick…
Hershey’s most recent adventures, written by Rob Williams and drawn, in such fine style, by Simon Fraser, have seen her travel the world to put right the scourge of Judge Smiley and Enceladus. It has been a masterpiece of storytelling and art that’s enabled Hershey to have the ending she deserved.
Now, it’s the final ever Hershey. So of course Tharg tasked series artist Simon Fraser to give us a cover to say goodbye. So, one last time, here’s Simon for the last Hershey cover…
SIMON FRASER: So I get the call from Matt that he wants a last Hershey cover, something classic.
I’m acutely aware that as we’re ending Hershey’s life in this story, this might be the last Hershey cover we ever get. So I want to see the old girl off right.
I immediately settle on the idea of doing an official portrait. I want this to look like a formal Justice Department Portrait taken of Hershey, maybe not when she starts as Chief Judge but when she’s a few years in.
This is her at the peak of her power, before the weight of the office eventually grinds her down, before the events of The Small House precipitate her downfall.
I don’t need to do an initial sketch in this case, I know exactly what I want, so I look for photo reference.
For doing detailed colour work I want to ref it, just to get that final level of polish this cover needs.
Then I just start drawing on 11″x17″ Strathmore.
My life is a confusion of Metric and Imperial measurements as I live in America, but all my tools are in centimeters.
Oh, the joy of being in the USA… they just cannot decide what to measure in!
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SIMON FRASER: I want a Dredd presence in the pic, but I’m not sure that I want something as overt as what I’ve drawn here.
I eventually settle on something more integrated, but more suffocating and indifferent. Which, to my mind, suits his position in the city and in Hershey’s life.
SIMON FRASER: I throw in some extra buildings to get a sense of depth, then I composite the whole thing together, rearrange the composition and do a very spare ink line.
I’ll be colouring it heavily, so I don’t want a lot of linework to fuss the place up.
Sadly I lack the confidence to go fully painted here. I like my lines holding it all together.
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Once I’ve got the lines all clean then it’s relatively easy to drop the big colour blocks in and then render them where I need it.
I want her to seem like a part of the city, but at the same time it’s an oppressive place.
I toyed with the idea of giving her a smile, but that’s really not what Justice Department is all about.
Goodbye, Judge Hershey.
She didn’t get many choices in her life, but she carried herself with conviction.
She served her city well.
And that, as they say, is it. Thank you to Simon for sending that along. And thank you to Rob Williams and Simon for giving us an ending to Hershey that will be talked about for a long, long time.
But of course, it’s not quite over yet. After all, we never did discover exactly how Hershey contracted that virus that eventually ended her life. Well, not yet anyway. But trust us, you’re going to want to be reading that one when it comes along very soon.
In the meantime, you can, you should, get hold of the zarjaz Simon Fraser cover to bid a fond farewell to a MC-1 legend on the front of 2000 AD Prog 2349, out on 13 September from anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.
And of course, the first two parts of this last Hershey saga, Disease and The Brutal, are already available to adorn the finest of bookshelves in Hershey Book I: Disease. It’s not to be missed.
For more Hershey Covers Uncovered from Simon, be sure to make with the clicks for these… Prog 2176 for the surprise return of Hershey, a beaten and bloodied Dirty Frank on Prog 2218, Hershey really feeling the welcome in Antarctic City for Prog 2034, and the intense and action-packed Prog 2309 cover.
You can find more from Simon at his website and on Twitter. And of course, make sure you’re listening to the Great Dante Read-Through Podcast where Simon and Edie Nugent talk all things Nikolai Dante.
And finally, here’s a little bonus… the first couple of pages from that final Hershey…
